Ottawa
Chief Pontiac

1720 - 1769

P

ONTIAC,
chief of the Ottawa, born on Ottawa
river about 1720; died in Cahokia, Ill., in 1769. He was the
son of an Ojibway woman, and, as the Ottawa were in alliance
with the Ojibwa and Pottawatomi, he became the principal
chief of the three tribes.

In 1746, with his warriors, he
defended the French at Detroit against an attack by some of
the northern tribes, and in 1755 he is believed to have led
the Ottawa at Braddock's defeat. After the surrender of
Quebec, Major Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, was sent to
take possession of the western forts, under the treaty of
Paris, but in November, 1760, while encamped at the place
where the city of Cleveland now stands, he was visited by
Pontiac, who objected to his further invasion of the
territory.

Finding, however, that the French
had been driven from Canada, he acquiesced in the surrender
of Detroit, and persuaded 400 Detroit Indians, who were
lying in ambush, to relinquish their design of cutting off
the British. While this action was doubtless in good faith,
still he hated the English and soon began to plan their
extermination.

In 1762 he sent messengers with a
red stained tomahawk and a wampum war belt, who visited
every tribe between the Ottawa and the lower Mississippi,
all of whom joined in the conspiracy The end of May was
determined upon as the time when each tribe was to dispose
of the garrison of the nearest fort, and then all were to
attack the settlements. A great council was held near
Detroit on 27 April, 1763, when Pontiac delivered an
oration, in which the wrongs and indignities that the
Indians had suffered at the hands of the British were
recounted, and their own extermination was prophesied. He
also told them of a tradition, which he could hardly have
invented, that a Delaware Indian had been admitted into the
presence of the Great Spirit, who told him his race must
return to the customs and weapons of their ancestors, throw
away the implements they had acquired from the white man,
abstain from whiskey, and take up the hatchet against the
British, "these dogs dressed in red, who have come to rob
you of your hunting grounds and drive away the game."

The taking of Detroit was to be
his special task, and the 7th of May was appointed for the
attack ; but the plot was disclosed to the commander of the
post by an Indian girl, and in consequence Pontiac found the
garrison prepared. Foiled in his original intention, on 12
May he surrounded Detroit with his Indians; but he was
unable to keep a close siege, and the garrison received food
from the Canadian settlers. The latter likewise supplied the
Indians, in return for which they received promissory notes
drawn on birch bark and signed with the figure of an otter,
all of which it is said were subsequently redeemed. Supplies
and reinforcements were sent to Detroit by way of Lake Erie,
in schooners ; but these were captured by the Indians, who
compelled the prisoners to row them to Detroit in hope of
taking the garrison by stratagem, but the Indians, concealed
in the bottom of the boat, were discovered before a landing
could be effected.

Subsequently another schooner,
filled with supplies and ammunition, succeeded in reaching
the fort, and this vessel the Indians repeatedly tried to
destroy by means of fire rafts.

The British now believed
themselves sufficiently strong to make an attack upon the
Indian camp, and 250 men, on the night of 31 July, set out
for that purpose; but Pontiac had been advised of this
intention by the Canadians, and, waiting until the British
had advanced sufficiently, opened fire on them from all
sides. In this fight, which is known as that of Bloody
Bridge, 59 of the British were killed or wounded.

A desultory warfare continued
until 12 Oct., when the siege was raised and Pontiac retired
into the country that borders Maumee river, where he vainly
endeavored to organize another movement. Although Pontiac
failed in the most important action of the conspiracy, still
Fort Sandusky, Fort St. Joseph, Fort Miami, Fort Ouatanon,
Mackinaw, Presque Isle, Fort LeBueuf, and Fort Venango were
taken and their garrisons were massacred, while unsuccessful
attacks were made elsewhere.

The British soon sent troops against the
Indians, and succeeded in pacifying most of the tribes, so
that, during the summer of 1766, a meeting of Indian chiefs,
including Pontiac, was held in Oswego, where a treaty was
concluded with Sir William Johnson. Although Pontiac's
conspiracy failed in its grand object, still it had resulted
in the capture and destruction of eight out of the twelve
fortified posts that were attacked, generally by the
massacre of their garrisons, it had destroyed several costly
British expeditions, and had carried terror and desolation
into some of the most fertile valleys on the frontiers of
civilization. In 1769 a Kaskaskia Indian, being bribed with
a barrel of liquor and promise of additional reward,
followed Pontiac into the forest and there murdered him.

See Francis
Parkman's "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac and the
War of the North American Tribes against the British
Colonies after the Conquest of Canada" (Boston, 1851),
also Franklin B. Hough's "Diary of the Siege of Detroit
in the War with Pontiac" (Albany, 1860). --
Edited Appleton's Cyclopedia American Biography

121800-The legend of Chief Pontiac s burialr - Tri-County
...
Apple Island in West Bloomfield Township s Orchard Lake,
according to historians, was "a haven of rest," for the most
famous Ottawa warrior, Chief Pontiac. ...
Historical
Chief Pontiac lived near what is now Detroit. Pontiac was an
Ottawa Chief. Pontiac supposedly was killed by the Illinios
Indians hired by the British.

Chief Pontiac
Pontiac was a chief of the Ottawa Indian tribe that settled
near Detroit in the 1770 s. This is now Pontiac, Michigan.